(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle seat, an adjusting system and a method for moving at least one vehicle seat arranged in a vehicle cabin, particularly an aircraft, comprising seat components that are coupled or guided together, such as a seat part, a backrest and a leg rest, the location and/or inclination of which can be adjusted by means of at least one driving device, with an electronic device for collision-free movement and for adjusting the vehicle seat in relation to a coordinate system.
(2) Description of Related Art
Today, vehicle seats, particularly aircraft seats for the business class and first class, contain a wide range of setting options. In most cases, a programmed control unit carries out the adjustment. This control unit accepts the request of the seat occupant to adjust his/her seat and carries out the corresponding adjustment of one or more seat components individually or even coherently depending on the construction and requirement of the given seat structure.
In the development phase of such a seat, a closely coordinated cooperation between the design engineer of the seat and the software developer of the control unit is necessary in order to convert the geometric data and adjustment of the respective seat components and the movement sequence of the components in relation to one another into a corresponding control program. Defining data must be determined for every seat component and for the movement of the components relative to one another. If these data are determined, they are converted into a sequence program for the control unit. This takes place by way of expressing the sequence in a currently common programming language, e.g. C, by a programmer who incorporates these sequences into the general control software. Due to this the basic functions and the movement functions are merged to form an inseparable overall software system. In most cases, only the manufacturer of the control unit can carry out modifications on the individual parts and necessitate a recompilation and validation and even a re-qualification of the overall software in an extreme case.
Since the creation of the control unit and programming are usually not among the core competencies of a seat manufacturer, the latter commissions the manufacturer of control units or a service provider to create the control unit and the software adaptation for the respective seat.
The verification of the adjustment sequence takes place at the actual seat. Since the particularities to be observed, e.g., cushions and cover fabric of the seat, are not yet available in complete form in most instances at the time of the program generation and also due to the requirement of an adjustment, which is convenient for the seat occupant, it is mostly necessary to implement adaptations even before the start of the series production.
Since the seat manufacturer mostly gets a service provider or a manufacturer of a control unit to create the control unit and the software, it is particularly difficult to implement unplanned changes because the resources of the service provider are bound by other projects at the time of the change request.
One solution for this bottleneck would be for the seat manufacturer to get his own employees to perform the independent adaptation of the software. However, this solution is hardly practical since the manufacturer of the control unit would have to disclose the entire program code of the control unit—thus his intellectual property—for this purpose. Furthermore, problems related to warranty can be expected to crop up in this approach since changes made in the program code by the seat manufacturer could also influence those points that do not concern the movement control and the seat manufacturer may not be able to predict the effects of these changes.
Published U.S. Patent Application 2004/066,067 (A1) discloses a vehicle seat and a method for the electrical movement of vehicle seats without interference, in which method limit values for the movement of the individual seat components (seat part, backrest, leg rest and seat-contact surface) are created by means of a movement model based on a two-dimensional mathematical model and envelopes or straight-lined borderlines. A monitoring system controls the actuating elements in such a way that these limit values are not violated. Every actuator is equipped with corresponding path sensors and angle sensors for this purpose.
This prior art does not take into account that future seating concepts that have already been developed to some extent will clearly require more flexibility. Future first class and business class seats will require distinctly more space with the “fully reclined” comfort requirement (full flat). In order to represent this economically, it is obvious that in addition to linear movements in the ZX direction, even position changes in the y direction (adjacent seats being pulled apart) or rotary movements of the seats are necessary. Furthermore, the requirement of bringing such seats/rows of seats into conference positions (again rotary movement) is also being recognized. This is hardly possible using the methods known heretofore.